Site Suggesions (from the MVC meeting)

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The meeting we had in off topic was very productive, and many good ideas were brought out from it, suggested by gg and worked on by the rest of us, these are the ones we think should be implemented to make codec a better place and attract more visitors each day.

1 - Report this post

A button that will be located somewhere on every post made GG suggested that it go around the Avatar area but my suggestion would be beside the “Quote” button. Upon clicking this link a PM will be sent to all moderators, contained in the post will be what was included in the post and a link to the thread it was in.

2 - Warning/Infraction System

A system that will allow bans to be made more uniformally, a user in warned and when that happens their warning level increases. As it hits certain points privileges will be taken away, such as posting images, videos, or links. Maybe even increase post time and or disable their ability to create topics. Ultimately, once it hits a certain height, warranting a ban. Points can be given out in amounts that equal the infraction committed. Underneath the online/offline thing on a person’s avatar area there will be a bar, this will be what shows the user’s current level. The infractions points will reset at the end of every month. (I think, correct me if I’m wrong)

3 - Member Benefits

A new section will be created, currently codenamed the “Premium Area”, inside this area the rules are much less strict when compared to our current rules. However, to prevent abuse of this privilege the only way to get inside is by having a majority of the section’s moderators agree to let the person inside. The individual must have met one of two criteria as well, either have 5000+ posts or have been around for at least a year. (also meaning they must be registered) Inside this section there may or may not be a section for the posting of pornographic images, this however is still under much thought.

The rest of the site will become more of a place to prove that you’re worthy of gaining entrance to this section, and as a result will be moderated more heavily, current rules will apply and new ones may be added, such as not making light of hurtful subjects. (such as rape or abuse)

4 - Who’s Online?

The current “who’s online” list on the main page was a step in the right section, but it’s felt that this type of list needs to be in every section. As explained by GG;

* A Who’s Online listing placed at the bottom of each main board page. In the main “Home” page, it will list everyone that is online. When I enter the MVC Home page, it will list who’s online in that board. When I click on an MVC sub-board like GAMES it will list a who’s online in that sub-board. When I enter an actual thread tho is when this stops. Similarly, this happens in the PREMIUM home board. Then when I enter the BLUEROOM board there’s a who’s online there. But when I enter an actual thread is when it stops.

5 - Section Moderators

If the above ideas come to pass the traffic of the site will probably increase, in which case the job of moderating might become too tedious for 4 people. This is where Moderator Classes come into play, there will be three classes of moderators on the site which are as followed.

Global Moderator
Section Moderator
Moderator

A moderator will govern a certain section of the forum, meaning that their powers won’t be there when exiting their given section, and they will have limited abilities. This position is mainly for support to the section moderators. They will act like scouts, looking for problems areas that the section mod could have missed. This class won’t be able to ban or delete threads.

A Section moderator has all the powers that our current mods have, the only difference is that like normal mods they are limited to a certain section of the forums only.

Global moderators have the power of our current mods, but unlike a section mod, their moderator powers work across the entire forum, not just a single section.

Last edited 24 May 2007 01:13 pm by Cid

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OH COME ON!
If you guys make a section like that you have to let me in. I will make sure its a thriving section too.

Last edited 24 May 2007 01:20 pm by anti-moviecodec.

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Reply area has a bbcode, img code, and smiley code built in.

On the right hand side (for instance) of the reply box is a a bunch of buttons for easily adding images, links, increasing or decreasing font size/color, a bunch of built smilies you can choose from. Also includes choosable options like strikethroughs, bold, underline, etc. And a font drop down so you can choose different font types. As well as things like spell checker, undo-redo, bullets, paragraph indentations, decrease/increase size of the textbox youre writing in so you can view large posts you’re writing/quoting etc. These are all just buttons that when you 'mouseover' shows what they do.

This is just to make it easy to post. Making things easy for posters = more posters = more posts.

These features still appear there on the right for Guests, but they are grayed out and unclickable. It’s good to show they’re grayed out so Guests know what they’re missing out on not registering.

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Agreed. Thats how it is on every other forum i post on....and then i come on here and have to type out all that [i], [b] crap...
..

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These are ones I’ve mentioned before...

Next to every 'quote' tag on each post there’s a multi-quote tag (+) symbol too. So that you can click a few posts you want to quote in one post. This would have a limit of maybe 3 or 4 that you can quote at one time. To do it you just click each post you want to quote (link turns red) and then you click the normal quote tag to complete... this takes you to the script page to complete your post. But the quoted text of these multiple posts always are left-aligned with a username in red/bold and quote bbcodes already placed around them.


Whenever you normally quote a post it will order things better. Currently, if i quote a post, that has quotes in it, it will keep tabbing them across and making the font so small you cant even read it. Also real pain in the ass to have people quoting these huge ongoing posts just to type a sentence. So, when you quote a post, a script will automatically left align the quoted text with a red colored or bolded username. And it WONT show the previous quoted quotes quotes. Only the post you’re quoting.


Also, each time you quote a post and submit the reply, your post will show a little arrow beside each username in the quote that if you click it, it will take you to the page and post where that quoted text exists in a thread, anywhere within that thread. So that people can click that to find the original post. Especially useful if you quote someone and want to edit out a lot of their post just to reply to some sentence/paragraph in it.

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Another one I’ve mentioned before....

If Im in the MVC or Premium board, it’s always handy to have a “NEW POSTS” link so you can see which threads are popular, etc. Its very useful because I often sit in the games thread and dont know what cool conversations are happening elsewhere.

So if I click NEW POSTS, it will take me to a page where there are listed the top 50 or whatever active threads in order top to bottom of the most recently posted in.

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MVC is slowly turning into your basic PHPBB-enabled forum.

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This is also a great tool...

Subscriptions page.

Basically, every thread you make a reply in will automatically subscribe you to that thread. No need for email notifications etc. Just making a post in it automatically subscribes you. The thing I find the hardest is looking for threads I’ve posted in. I have to create a special bookmark folder in my browser purely to try to keep track of threads.

So, at the top left of the page next to ACCOUNT tab is a SUBSCRIPTIONS tab. When I click that it takes me to all the threads I’ve been subscribed to, listed in the order like the NEW POSTS order. In here I can click radio buttons to unsubsribe/delete threads I no longer want to be subscribed to.

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And one last one for now...

When you’re in a board viewing threads, when youre viewing the page of NEW POSTS, when youre viewing your subscriptions....at all times there’s a “go to last post” button next to the name of the last poster displayed.

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This is the big conundrum I guess. Im sure Bjarne having to hand-write everything it would drive him crazy if he had to do all that. But those things are IMPERATIVE to having a good user-friendly forum, etc.

If Bjarne finds it too hard to consider, would he consider just using a PHPBB board instead and just tailoring it after that? Wouldnt it be easier to moderate and administer? I dont know much about the mod/admin side of phpbb forums, whether its good or bad, but all those suggestions would be important to have, yet maybe switch to phpbb forum then if it’s all already built in?

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I think what makes MVC unique is that it is NOT a phpbb site. If it was, then what? We would have a cool site with so many members with tools any old schmuck can get his hands on? I think MVC is fine as a site, it’s the community that needs to be dealt with.

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I’ve put some user-friendly suggestions in there, that are probably still possible without going a whole phpbb forum.

subscriptions, new posts, etc.

Others probably have great ideas too in what new features there could be.

But also contributions are sought for general ideas regarding the MVC meeting itself that Cid summarized at top.

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Agreed.

IPB is better.

The Pendragon
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GG: You have a lot of great ideas, but maybe it’s a bit too accelerated as of yet.
I think we should get the larger things, like the warning and infraction system, out of the way, and then maybe tweak around with minor things, like BBcode buttons on the side.

Although, I myself would like the changes to avoid being too excessive (to the point it doesn’t even look like moviecodec anymore or it’s just really hard to do), and some of those smaller “convinence” things maybe be nulled altogether. (Multi-quote button would be nice, but the subscription thing is more of a minor thing, or whatever else)

Just my opinion, of course.

Last edited 24 May 2007 06:20 pm by Tyreaus Rhade

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Mods shouldn’t be able to decide who gets in and who doesn’t. It gives them too much power and the rules still seem to be a problem as they seem to becoming ridiculously strict.
It should just go by post count and how much time has been spent on the site.

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It could be where the mods do the actual letting in, and the people already in can ask them to let other people in. (If those other people are suitable for it)
Course, how Cid’s got it worded it’s pretty much strictly by how long you’ve been here and your # of posts. The mods just seem to open the door to those people meeting the criteria.

As for rules, they’re easy enough to follow if you don’t have ill intension. I myself think they’re fine how they be.

Last edited 24 May 2007 09:31 pm by Tyreaus Rhade

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We want to avoid letting in trouble makers while allowing good members inside.

For example, Mortis has been around for a long time but would you want to give him access to an area that was made for good, long staying members? Sure, we could easily say they have to have at least 5000 posts AND must have been here for a year or more, that gets rid of the trollers BUT it also alienates members who’ve been around for a few months but have gained over 5000 posts by partaking in meaningful conversations.

If we said just one of the above qualifications and you’re in, then we open the door to members we don’t want inside. However, if we held that single qualification and also had to have a Mod’s consent then we could make sure that nobody bad gets inside. And due to the fact that our current moderators are all level headed and good people, you’ll not have to worry about us NOT allowing in someone who deserves to be there.

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Very well said. Exactly the way it should be done.

And TR...yeah your criticisms are fine. It’s cool. Personally, I’d LOVE to see subscriptions and new posts for sure, and still retain MVC’s uniqueness and non-phpbbness. Multi-quote isnt too necessary. But whats very helpful is when you quote someone, only that quote is quoted, not a whole page of quotes contained within. Thats a real pain in the ass.

Anyway, I’ll stop making suggestions. Step at a time. Appreciate you guys listening to my suggestions over the week. Let me know PM if you hear anything.

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Actually, Mortis doesn’t bother me.

Anyways, you’ll probably let in troublemakers such as leclair.

This place is starting to seem more like a dictatorship with mods getting all this power.